The Left off target Socialists everywhere are now having to fight against racist agitation. Unfortunately, however, it has to be said that a number of the arguments used by the left are simply wrong. The purpose of this article is to take up some of these mistaken ideas as they have appeared in newspapers of the revolutionary left. 1. Immigrants to any healthy society are an asset and a "bonus". They are fully grown, educated and capable of working. This attempt to justify the entry of immigrants on the basis of their 'usefulness' misses the essential point about black immigration and plays into the hands of the Government's own immigration laws. For the Government replies by saying, "we will only take adult, skilled male immigrants who are in a good state of health, preventing the families of immigrant workers from coming here. The real reason why workers should be in solidarity with the Ugandan Asians and other black people trying to enter this country is that they are oppressed by the same basic enemy as the British working class.
This enemy, British imperialism, attacks the immigrant peoples through creating economic ruin in their countries of origin -for example the West Indies, India and Pakistan; and by dividing the people in order to set them against each other and divert them from a fight against their real oppressor - as in the case of East Africa. It is the duty of the British labour movement to stand in solidarity with the Ugandan Asians and welcome them here, because only through such solidarity can the vital unity between the British working class and the peoples of the semi-colonial world be forged and